Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Metal Detectorist Steve Taylor imagines he lives in a "Christian country" and asks "How much do we need..." and accuses archaeologists of "grave robbing":

Should archaeologists be able to plunder and desecrate ancient grave sites[?] In a Christian society is it right in the name of science that graves are being looted by archaeologists, just to see how these people lived and died. It a bit like the Japanese whaling fleets killing whales to study, but in reality it is just an excuse to carry on eating them. Have we not now got enough evidence to say these people died of X, and leave the rest in peace[?]

Could the PAS as part of their public outreach inform members of the public why and when in modern archaeology graves are excavated, and what laws and codes of ethics apply? There seems some confusion in the public mind about this, can the PAS as part of its archaeological outreach clarify these issues? Thanks.

Metal Detectorist Steve Taylor asks why, now we have metal detectorists taking most of the remains of the past from Britain's landscape into the "care" of their personal collections, we need museums at all: "How much do we need..." [in museums]:

How many more artefacts do museums around the world need before they are full to the brim. Most of these collections are kept in vaults or basements where they will never see the light of day, so to say they belong to everyone is a bit like going to ask the Queen to borrow the Crown jewels for the evening. The Ashmolian (sic) museum has many fine Bronze Age axe heads on show in glass display cases, but if you care to open the rows of draws beneath the display cases, you will see several hundred more examples. What is the point of holding these items if they are not in the main display cabinets, as the majority of people will never view them. Public money should be used to show what we already have , not to aimlessly buy what we already have many examples of. Those academics and Professors will always argue we need this information but in reality it is just to keep them employed, as many would find it hard working on a Tesco‘s till.

Could the PAS as part of their public outreach about portable antiquities they also inform members of the public about the significance and purpose of museum collections of archaeological artefacts, why there are "so many" items curated in them. Should museums collect antiquities at all, or should they all go to metal detectorists and those who collect them? There seems some confusion in the public mind about this, can the PAS as part of its archaeological outreach clarify these issues? Thanks.

Could the PAS as part of their public outreach inform members of the public about ho archaeologists are, what they do and why they matter? The author of this video seems to regard them as not-so-glorious treasure seekers,, an impression that might be said to be reinforced by PAS emphasis on "things found". There seems some confusion in the public mind about this, can the PAS as part of its archaeological outreach clarify this issue? Thanks.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Blogger Candice Jarman (People's archaeology blogspot) has problems understanding why archaeologists - for example in the United States and many European countries - do not encourage the collecting of antiquities - and yet it is claimed that many archaeologists themselves collect them.

Below is a nice lot of antiquities being sold by Woolley and Wallis, the Salisbury auctioneers on 13 September. Well worth a bid! The eye was previously in the collection of Cyril Aldred, the British Egyptologist, art historian and author, who was Keeper at the Royal Scottish Museum, and previously worked as a Curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

All reasonable people will see nothing wrong with archaeologists (or anyone else for that matter) collecting antiquities. Huge numbers of artifacts left source countries before 1970, and are in private hands. There is nothing any of the 'antis' can do about that!

Could the PAS as part of their public outreach inform members of the public who these so-called "antis" are, and what their position is and what the position of the PAS to the collecting of antiquities by professional archaeologists and museum employees. Should archaeologists collect antiquities? There seems some confusion in the public mind about this, can the PAS as part of its archaeological outreach clarify this issue? Thanks.

UPDATE 7/9/11: The only response to emerge from the PAS to this is that they are going to visit more metal detecting clubs, which seems a wholly inadequate response given the circumstances.

There is nothing more destructive to the archaeological record than archaeological excavation! I thought all archaeological students were taught that very early in their undergraduate studies. All those time equivalent layers carefully trowelled away, all those artifacts removed from their contexts and placed in Museum or University storage, never to the see the light of day. That's why it's imperative that archaeologists publish the results of their excavations.

Candice asks the PAS what is the point conserving the record for destruction when its excavated, and what about the information lost when excavations are not published. Can the PAS explain to members of the public like Candice Jarman why the archaeological record is conserved? There seems some confusion in the public mind, can the PAS as part of its archaeological outreach clarify this issue? Thanks.

UPDATE 7/9/11: The only response to emerge from the PAS to this is that they are going to visit more metal detecting clubs, which seems a wholly inadequate response given the circumstances.

Over the years a number of questions about British policy have arisen and have been posed on my blog. In recent months, due no doubt to the variety of other issues cropping up (US legislation and egregious cases of museum cupidity, the looting in Egypt and now Libya and other issues), these questions have been swamped there by other matters. it is the purpose of this blog to bring these questions in a single space, allowing the PAS and their supporters to see at a glance what issues have been raised and could usefully be addressed in their public outreach. To save space and time, the actual questions will be summarised here, with a link back to the post on my main blog where the reasons for asking them might be made a bit more clear. I will also post here other questions which I note have been asked in various media by members of the public in England and Wales (and welcome any pointed from readers to items I may have missed).

In this way it is hoped that some transparency may be achieved, and we can all see which questions the PAS has answered, and which ones they have so far been unable to answer in their archaeological outreach to the British public, antiquity collectors as well as the majority who do not collect antiquities.

About Me

British archaeologist living and working in Warsaw, Poland. Since the early 1990s (or even longer) a primary interest has been research on artefact hunting and collecting and the market in portable antiquities in the international context and their effect on the archaeological record.